The Council and Parliament of the European Union have adopted a directive requiring the member states to harmonize their design laws by October 28, 2001. The Directive, however, for the time being leaves to national law the vexed question of protection for spare parts, only requiring that if there is any change in national law on this subject it must be for the purpose of liberalizing the market for such parts.

Under the Directive protection for designs must be by way of registration. However, it is specifically stated that this protection is without prejudice to other forms of rights, such as unregistered design rights, trademarks, patents, utility models, unfair competition laws and copyrights. No distinction is drawn between aesthetic and functional designs, the only requirements for protection being that the design is new, has individual character and does not subsist in features which are dictated solely by technical function. Additionally design protection shall not, with the exception of units intended to form part of a modular system, subsist in features of a product which must necessarily be reproduced exactly to permit the product to which the design is applied to be "mechanically connected to or placed in, around or against another product so that either product may perform its function".

In order to meet the requirement that a design must be new and have individual character, there must have been no disclosure of the design such that it could reasonably have become known in the normal course of business to the circles specialized in the sector concerned, operating within the Community before the filing date of the application for protection or where appropriate the priority date of such an application. Disclosures in confidence do not destroy the novelty of the design. Furthermore a one-year grace period is provided for disclosures made by the designer, his successor in title or a third person as a result of information provided by the designer or his successor in title. This grace period runs back from the filing date of the application or where priority is claimed from the priority date. To have individual character, the design must differ from prior designs in "the overall impression it produces on the informed user", taking into consideration "the degree of freedom of the designer in developing the design."

Initial protection is to be for a five-year period from the date of filing the application for protection, renewable for up to further five-year periods up to a maximum duration of twenty-five years.

The owner of a registered design secures the exclusive right to use the design including making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting or using a product into which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied. Such rights do not, however, apply to any product that was put on the market by the owner of the right or with the owner's consent anywhere within the European Union. Additionally the rights cannot be used to control acts done privately for non commercial purposes, experimental acts and acts done for citation or teaching purposes as long as these are compatible with fair trade practices and do not unduly prejudice the normal exploitation of the design and that in such uses mention is made of the source of the design.